Governor Mike Pence can debate — who knew? Donald J Trump’s running mate has been fairly invisible so far this election — his star eclipsed by the great orange fireball that is Trump’s ego. But in last night’s vice-presidential debate, he shone. He was more political (in a good sense), more eloquent and more statesmanlike than his adversary. His performance was, in other words, the opposite of Trump’s in last week’s presidential debate.
Tim Kaine, Hillary’s vice-presidential pick, didn’t do well. He seemed nervous and over-rehearsed: he fired off too many attack lines too quickly, and his tactic of always savaging Donald Trump rather than discussing the issues made him seem petty.
What was notable, however, and has already become the Democrat spin line overnight, was that Pence often refused to stand up for Donald Trump’s character. This gives Hillary a perfect attack line in the next presidential debate — if even Trump’s running mate won’t defend him, what does that say?
In that sense, then, Pence’s good performance is bad news for Trump. And indeed, already the rumours are flying that Trump’s epic vanity is hurt because he has been outshone by his Veep. CNBC’s John Harwood tweeted that an adviser to the Republican presidential nominee told him, ‘Pence won overall, but lost with Trump.’ Because the Donald ‘can’t stand to be upstaged’.
Whatever the case, the real point is that vice-presidential debates don’t really matter, and so Pence’s fine performance won’t count for much. The Republican Dan Quayle famously had an abysmal debate in 1988 against Lloyd Bentsen. It made no difference to the result. George H. Bush won. Last night’s debate was of a higher calibre than the Trump-Clinton contest last week, but it was boring for long periods, and many of the (considerably smaller) TV audience will have tuned out or changed channel.
Still, Pence deserves his plaudits. When he became Trump’s running mate in July, many pundits asked: what’s in it for him? If Trump loses, which he probably will, Pence will have hitched his fortunes to a disaster. He will be indelibly tarred by his association with the Donald. But last night Pence acquitted himself very well — and, in standing up for the Republican Party, but not so much the nominee — he suddenly looks like a presidential candidate in the making for 2020.
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